The Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 shots, killing the African-American teenager Laquan McDonald; 14 of those shots were apparently fired while McDonald lay on the ground. It took four years and the expulsion of the state attorney general before the trial against Van Dyke for first-degree murder resulted in convictions for the lesser crimes of second-degree murder and aggravated battery this October.
Former Chicago police officer Joseph Walsh, left, and Chicago police officer Thomas Gaffney, right, depart the Cook County Courthouse after their arraignment on state felony charges of conspiracy in the investigation of the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald, July 10, 2017, in Chicago. (AP/G-Jun Yam)
Cook County DA Anita Alvarez and Cuyahoga County DA Timothy McGinty both lost primary elections on Tuesday, signaling regime change by voters for two of the most hated, worst prosecutors in America.
While much of the country focused on Presidential elections, Chicago area voters dumped Anita Alvarez, whose biggest claim to fame before the Laquan McDonald video cover up was losing the landmark case ACLU vs. Alvarez, which invalidated Illinois unconstitutional wiretapping law.
RT | January 1, 2016 A New Year’s Eve release of hundreds of internal emails by the City of Chicago reveals the Independent Police Review Authority not living up to its name as “independent.” In one email, the mayor’s office said the IPRA was giving a “statement we approved.” After weeks of requests from multiple […]
By Todd E. Pierce | Consortium News | December 11, 2015 After more than a year of stonewalling and what some might call obstructing justice, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an apology for the horrific execution of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason van Dyke. Laquan McDonald was the black 17-year-old who was shot 16 times by the police […]
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a bold yet belated move when he fired his embattled police superintendent in the wake of a national uproar surrounding the release of a chilling video that captured the police killing of a teen–a ward of the city of Chicago.
Included in that uproar is anger over mounting evidence of a cover-up connected to the brutal and unjustified shooting graphically displayed on that video. Political and civic leaders in Chicago had demanded the removal of Chicago top cop Garry McCarthy months before Emanuel’s uproar-triggered ouster.
This week we bring you black and brown power worldwide as peeps from Manila to Chicago fight the powers that be. In the Philippines, anti-capitalist warriors told APEC leaders to pack up and get the fuck out of dodge, while comrades in Minneapolis took a page from the Ferguson riots, and stormed a police station and in Chi-town, a strong reaction to the Laquan McDonald shooting tape.
